Community Survey shows mixed ratings from residents

A survey of local residents carried out by Opinion Research Services on behalf of St Abans City and District Council has yielded mixed results. The main findings were that:

Satisfaction with the local area as a place to live remains high (90%) and the proportion feeling that they belong to their local area (77%) is at the highest level seen.

Compared to 2015, residents are more likely to feel informed about how to get involved in local decision-marking and about how local public services are performing.

While views of many public services have declined (both locally and nationally), satisfaction with museums and galleries has seen a statistically significant increase since 2015 (of 10 percentage points).

Although most residents (66%) remain satisfied with the way the council runs things, there has been a statistically significant decrease since 2015 (when 71% were satisfied). There has also been a decrease in the proportion that feel the council provides value for money (38%; down from 46% in 2015).

There have been statistically significant increases in the proportions of residents identifying most types of anti-social behaviour as either a very or fairly big problem, particularly: rubbish or litter lying around (up by 15 percentage points), people using or dealing drugs (up by 12 percentage points), and vandalism and deliberate damage (up by 11 percentage points).

Similarly, the proportion of residents who agree that the police are successfully dealing with the antisocial behaviour issues listed in the survey has declined, from 76% in 2015 to 68% in 2018.

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